Something Fieri said lingers in my mind. “What home system are you talking about?”
Fieri moves the device to my right hand and takes a seat beside Mother Cinuska. “Do you want to tell him?”
She sighs and eases into a chair not far from us. “I came here because I realize now that it is time I tell you the truth, Jorusk.”
I twist my neck and look over at her. “What was the lie?”
“No lie,” she solemnly says. “I just didn’t tell youeverythingbecause I was trying to protect you. I know only that every hundred years or so, a hatchling is cast out of the stars and falls to the world where we Drathious reside. The Talhuskins always found them and killed them.
“I was not around for the one before you. Legends say they were meant to sacrifice for us. But I think that’s just the way things worked out because Talhuskins saw them as a threat. They were always seen as the most powerful of our kind, but quieter, less like the typical Draths.”
“Rambunctious adrenaline junkies with twisted senses of humor?” I ask.
There’s uncharacteristic insecurity in her posture. Her wings droop like she’s exhausted. “Yeah. When I found you in the cracked egg way out in the desert of Talhuskins’ Planet Zekva, I thought you were too far gone to save.”
“But you must’ve tried anyway,” Fieri remarks. “Why?”
“So did you. So I should ask you the same thing.”
Fieri’s voice quiets. “I have my reasons.”
Mother Cinuska tilts her head and looks at him with odd curiosity. “There was a ship near where I found your cracked egg, Jorusk. I wasn’t sure until I saw you riding that Talhuskin vessel into the sky. Now, I know. You are not Drathious, but Drathis. You are too important for us to lose. You must promise not to throw your life to the wind again. You are our only tie to our homeworld, the true homeworld, where we are all from. And we need that tether now more than ever.”
Fieri completes his treatment of my broken parts and gets up. “Cinuska, may I have a word with you, outside?”
I watch as she gets up and leaves with him. Reeling from the news, I try to tune my hearing and listen in, but I’m still a bit out of sorts after being in the tank. Sitting up takes effort, but I want to know what’s going on.
“I understand, but this sense of responsibility is slowly killing him. And I think you know how that feels.” Fieri sounds confident and slightly irritated.
“What are you talking about?”
“You have raised many hatchlings, and yet you have no scent of a male on you. Your Inferno is as hot as his usually is. I know you are burning up inside. You must know he is, too.
“He needs a break, or he’s going to do worse than incinerate half a ship. You think I haven’t seen that kind of damage. But the prince I serve is of comparable power, just a different kind. Jorusk is burning up inside just like Aura was. He needs a female to focus his energy. And right now might be a good time to send him somewhere safer.”
Just the idea of a mate makes my monster stir. A warning light flashes on my chest plate, and I calm myself with a deep breath.
I can’t have a mate.
I am far too dangerous.
4: Jorusk
I inspect my wings as I listen to Fieri and Cinuska argue in the hallway. The left has several bruises like the right, but the significant injuries are all sealed up, the broken bones mended. My Inferno will heal the rest.
Mother Cinuska cuts Fieri off. “Do not lecture me about my priorities. You will not change my mind.”
Fieri closes the door, leaving me alone in the room.
A screen lights up beside me. “Jorusk.”
I look up and smile at the white orb floating in the center of the ship on the screen. “I know that voice. Hello, Allele.”
“How are you feeling?”
Talking with the spirit of a ship, an alien entity that exists primarily as light, has always kind of freaked me out. But Allele and Aura’s team saved me from being clawed apart by a Mindor on the Amphiran MothershipTiatith.So as much as I feel like a demon among angels, I try to behave myself.
“Fieri repaired a lot.”
